I’ve been complaining about my allergies for close to three weeks.  And I was *this* close to calling the allergist.  My stupid allergies were preventing me from sleeping and I felt like had been run over by a truck and that damn truck flat-lined my training.

Even though I didn’t want to run, I met my Suncoast Striders friends for a tempo run on Thursday.  I couldn’t breathe and I was tired but I still went even though I only had 4 miles in me.  At least, I finished under 40 minutes.  I did better than I thought.

4.10 miles
Time 38:25
Ave Pace 9:22
Max Pace 7:46

Thursday night, once again I couldn’t sleep.  I lied in bed watching TV and finally fell asleep around 11:00.  And then, I woke up around 2:30 and couldn’t get back to sleep.  So, I decided to watch, The Bridge, a show my husband highly recommended.  Watching The Bridge was a bad move because I watched all the On Demand episodes in one go.  It was The Bridge marathon!  I was hooked!  The show is so compelling and plot twists keep you on the edge of your seat or in my case, the edge of my bed and unfortunately I never fell back to sleep.  Insomnia and compelling television are not a good combination.

My lack of sleep meant I was too tired to go to Body Pump.  I lacked the energy to lift my eyelids let alone weights.

On Friday, hubby and I had a lunch date at Datz followed by a shopping date at Ikea.  On a whim, I decided to buy some new pillows because ours lost their fluff.  Since I’m allergic to goose down, I always buy the down alternative and Ikea’s are such a great price and hold up really well but maybe a little too well since I haven’t replaced our pillows for a couple of years.

That night, I fell asleep around 9:30.  I was out cold, dead to the world snoring away on my new Ikea pillows and I slept until 6:45 the next morning.  I slept soundly for 9 hours all because I changed my pillows!

Who knew?!  Well, actually I know I am highly allergic to dust mites so it makes sense.  I had two years worth of dust mites living on my pillows.  After my little bedroom allergy scientific investigation, I decided to research how often you should change your pillow.  The recommendation is between 1-3 years.  With someone with bad allergies like me, the recommendation is once a year.

Funny enough, I used to buy new pillows every January.  I guess I will need to mark that in my calendar:  AUGUST 2014 – NEW PILLOWS!  That way I will have nice new clean dust mite free pillows just in time for Flu Season.

However, what I more excited about is the fact that I’ve avoided the allergist once again by simply making one small change in my house.  I knew that if I returned to his office, he would make me sit through another skin prick test since it’s been so long since my last visit.

I’ll take new soft fluffy clean pillows over a skin prick test or desensitizing shots any day.

How often do you change your pillows?  Do you have bad allergies?  Try changing your pillows and see what happens.

After a great night’s sleep, I was ready to run some serious miles on Saturday.  I decided to get a jump start on my marathon training with ten miles.  It’s been some time since a double digit run.  My last half Iron Girl in April and a 9 mile bridge run back in August.  This summer, I focused on getting stronger, running faster, shorter runs and triathlon training.  So, this would be my first ten miles in a while and I wanted to see how I would do.

And I rocked it!

10 miles
Time 1:41:26
Ave Pace 10:09
Max Pace 7:44

I haven’t seen numbers like this in a really long time.  This is HUGE for me!  It’s what my friend, Jenny, calls a non-scale victory.  This is a great predictor as to how I will perform at my first half marathon (The Frankenfooter) next month.  My PR is 2:09.  My goal is to beat that and finish under two hours.  I think I can do it!

Sunday, Jenny and I met for a 20 mile bike ride.  At the trailhead, we bumped into Meghan of Little Girl in the Big World, which was a nice surprise.  She’s training for Iron Man.  We also bumped into a few of our sTRIder friends.  I had no idea Sunday morning was THE time to be on the trail.  It was like a cyclist’s cocktail party!  Thank goodness someone brought the tandem bike to the party.

On the trail, we spotted Mica which was another nice surprise.  She was going for 8 miles and her longest ever (LE) to train for Disney’s Wine and Dine.

My legs were pretty sore after my 10 mile run, so went for easy 20 mile ride and actually rode 21.  Jenny and I rode the trail into Starkey Park and it was a great ride although I kept getting hit in the face with bugs.  Why are you bugging me nature?!

21.40 miles
Time 1:30:19
Ave Speed 14.2
Max Speed

Back at the trail head, we caught up with Mica again.  She actually ran 8.5 miles and did great!  I’m so proud of her.

On Monday, my legs were still pretty sore so I ran an easy 4 with Heather.  We haven’t run together in a while and it was fun to catch up with her.

4.11 miles
Time 41:55
Ave Pace 10:12
Max Pace 7:19

Today was Track Tuesday, but I arrived a few minutes late so I decided to just run 6 x 400 repeats.

1.13 mile warm-up
Time 9:07

Lap 1 – 0.25 – Time 1:36
Ave Pace 6:26

Lap 2 – 0.25 – Time 1:45
Ave Pace 7:03

Lap 3 – 0.25 – Time 1:51
Ave Pace 7:26

Lap 4 – 0.25 – Time 1:55
Ave Pace 7:42

Lap 5 – 0.25 – Time 1:58
Ave Pace 7:52

Lap 6 – Time 1:54
Ave Pace 7:58

1 mile cool down
Time 9:43

Tomorrow I’m dusting off my red, white and blue tutu for the Hernando YMCA’s Annual Run to Remember  September 11.  It was a great little local race last year, but this year, I’m ready for those hills.  I am hoping to beat my last 5K time.  Wish me luck and watch for a full race recap tomorrow.